1. Technical Field
The present invention is related generally to an image recording apparatus which feeds a plurality of recording medium continuously.
2. Related Art
In the image recording apparatus in the related art, a sheet feeding operation is performed while securing an adequate distance between a preceding sheet and a following sheet when feeding sheets from a sheet feed tray having a plurality of sheets stacked thereon to a sheet conveying path separately one by one. In the case of the image recording apparatus as described above, if no image data is present for the following sheet to be recorded, the following sheet remains in the sheet conveying path after having executed the image recording on the preceding sheet. As an example of a countermeasure against the remaining sheet, an image recording apparatus is known which is configured to return the remaining sheet to the sheet feed tray by rotating a sheet feed roller merely in a reverse direction opposite to a conveying direction when the image data for the following sheet is not present.
However, when small sized sheets (post cards or the like) are printed, or when a sheet remaining in the sheet conveying path is positioned further downstream, the sheet is not pressed by the sheet feed roller. Therefore, there is a probability that the sheet cannot be returned to the sheet feed tray, and remains in the sheet conveying path. Even when the remaining sheet is pressed by the sheet feed roller, when returning the remaining sheet, damage of the remaining sheet or a sheet on the sheet feed tray might be resulted due to, for example, a frictional force between the remaining sheet and the sheet on the sheet feed tray in a specific environment or in the case of a specific sheet type. The longer the distance of returning the remaining sheet, the higher the probability of occurrence of damage may become.